THE FAIRY with too small wings

Copyright (c) 2020 by Randall R. Peterson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED This is a work of fiction. All persons, locations and actions are from the author's imagination or have been used in a fictitious manner.

The Fairy

…with too small wings

By R. Peterson

 Once upon a time, in the forests north of Nodnol, a fairy was born, perfect in every way except that her wings were much too small. While the other fairies hovered around the tops of flowers, extracting nectar from the blossoms and trading it to much larger bees for wax for their wings and honey, Stardust could barely fly above the ground. She spent most of her days, and all of her nights, alone and wishing that she hadn’t been born so different.

One evening, Stardust sat on a large stone by a pond and began to cry. Her tears fell upon a frog, sleeping under the rock. “Hey what’s the big idea?” the frog grumbled as he woke up. “I’m always very careful to get dry before night comes or else I get too cold.”

“I’m so sorry,” Stardust told him as she dried him off with her wings. “I hope this makes you feel warmer.”

“It does,” the frog admitted. “But now your wings are wet and you won’t be able to fly!”

“It makes no difference,” Stardust told him. “I can hardly fly anyway!”

“But you must!” the frog insisted. “A hungry snake slithers about this pond every night looking for small creatures to eat. She’ll be here soon. If she catches you, you’ll be her next meal!”

“What should I do?’ Stardust asked the frog.

“If you try to escape through the forest she will sense you,” the frog said, “and there is no more room under this rock.” The frog stared for a long time at the moon’s reflection on the pond’s surface. Suddenly he opened his mouth and uttered a loud croak. “I’ve got it,’ he said. “I’ll cover you up! The fragrance of flowers should disguise your scent and I’ll make you a bed of lichen that will hide you from her hungry eyes.”

The frog hopped away and minutes later he returned. In no time the frog made Starlight a bed of yellow green moss on the rock and covered her with red rose petals.

The bed was very warm and Starlight soon fell asleep. Sometime later she awakened to a slithering sound. The snake had come. She felt the long scaly body slither around the rock she was sleeping on. Starlight was glad her frog friend was hidden safely out of reach.

Suddenly the snake rose above the top of the rock. Starlight could see the nostril slits in the serpent’s face quivering. It had found her!

Just as the snake’s mouth opened showing rows of sharp teeth and two fangs glowing under the moonlight, Starlight heard the frog hop out from under the rock. “You’ll never catch me!” he called as he lured the snake away.

The frog was fast, but the snake was faster.  Starlight heard the snake catch her friend just as he hopped into the woods and then after a single terrified croak he was swallowed whole.

Starlight cried long after the snake slithered away. Her tears saturated the moss she was sleeping on and the rose petals that covered her … She thrashed about so much, her entire bed was turning into a brown paste … but she didn’t care.

-------2-------

When starlight awakened, it was afternoon and the warm sunlight had dried the moss and the rose petals that covered her. When she stood up her bed suddenly became a cloud of sparkling dust the color of gold. “I wish I could fly home,” she whispered. “I’m hungry for honey.” And starlight suddenly found herself flying higher and faster than she’d ever done before. “This is like magic,” she gasped.

As she flew over the meadow where her home was she passed a large swarm of bees going in the other direction. “Wasps!” they told her. “They have captured all the fairies and taken them to their white castle for a large feast they’re planning!”

Starlight, the bees and the fairies all knew of the huge paper-like nest that hung from a dead tree in the forest … and they always tried to avoid it. The wasps were vicious and would eat anything they could catch. But now she knew that she must fly to the nest to see if she could help in any way.

As she was flying over a small stream she noticed a snake warming itself in the sun. There was a large lump in the center of its long body. “I wonder …. ?”

Starlight paused in her flight. And when she did, a sprinkle of golden dust that had clung to her wings came loose and swirled around her. “If that’s my frog friend … I wish I could free him!”

Suddenly a large eagle swooped down and grabbed the snake with its talons and then lifted the squirming beast high into the air. Starlight frantically followed.

As the eagle flew high over a large pile of rocks, it dropped the snake. Starlight landed next to the crushed body before the bird could circle back. There was a large split in the bulge in the snake and Starlight was happy and thrilled to see her frog friend climb out. “Where am I?’ he croaked.

Starlight made sure they were hidden safely in some bushes before the eagle landed. Then she told her friend about the magic dust from the dried moss and red rose petals. “You saved my life,” the frog croaked.

“And you saved mine,” Starlight told him.

“We’ll be friends forever.” They both laughed.

-------3-------

It was almost dark when Starlight found the white castle deep in the forest. Her frog friend had returned to his pond. Most of the wasps and gone into the nest to sleep. The guards were sleeping under puff balls of wild cotton. The fairies were trapped in a cage woven out of tiny thorn branches hanging next to the nest. Starlight thought she could free them.

Starlight was cutting the rope that bound the tiny door with a sliver of broken glass when two wasps grabbed her from behind.

“It takes a lot of fairies to make a meal,” a fat Wasp laughed as he pushed Starlight into the cage and retied the door. “I’m so glad you arrived before breakfast.”

There was much laughter from the wasp nest and then much later a stillness that somehow seemed even worse.

And the moon slipped from behind a blanket of clouds and shown its light on the terrified fairies waiting for the morning … that they hoped would never come.

TO BE CONTINUED …